Who Elects The Dog Catcher?
@realDonaldTrump Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts…. Our ever tweetable POTUS sent this message out today. It raises an important question: what municipality elects the animal control associate? Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
What an elected dogcatcher reveals about small-town America is the result from The Economist. “You’ve reached your article limit Sign up to keep reading or subscribe now to get the complete experience.” For $12, USD, you can get twelve weeks of this publication. There is no guarantee that you will learn anything about dog catcher politics.
Is dogcatcher actually an elective office? Slate wrote an article about this, when all they had to say was no. The author: “Christopher Beam is a writer living in Beijing.” This is a place where dog catchers are an important part of the restaurant supply chain.
A brief history of people who have actually been elected dog catcher The Washington Post tried a bit harder. They found newspaper clippings referring to elected dog catchers. Col. Tom Parker, the manager of Elvis Presley, was said to have been elected dog catcher in Tampa FL. There is also the story of Bob White. He assured voters that even though he lost both legs, he would be able to perform the duties of dog catcher.
Duxbury VT keeps coming up in this search party. They have a town meeting every year, and the dog catcher is chosen by citizen vote. In the most recent town meeting, “dog catcher Zeb Towne, who was nominated almost unanimously for re-election, despite a “no” vote from his wife that cause laughter to erupt in the room.”
Making It Worse
Your husband has been killed in action, while serving in the United States Army. You are going to the airport, to be there when the remains arrive. It is going to get worse.
Your congressional representative is in the vehicle with you. The President of the United States calls. Mr. Trump reportedly said something inappropriate. Your representative heard this private conversation on a speaker phone, and went out and told everyone about it.
We probably will never know what the President really said. What is reported … “Well, I guess he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt”… would not be out of character for Donald Trump. On the other hand, what business did Rep. Frederica Wilson have in outing this conversation? This is a horrible, horrible moment for Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson. It could only be made worse by Rep. Wilson’s big mouth.
@realDonaldTrump Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad! @RepWilson @realDonaldTrump does not possess the character, empathy or grace to be president of the United States.
Rep. Frederica Wilson should not be tweeting about “character, empathy or grace.” At roughly the four minute mark of this interview, Rep. Wilson said “that’s not politicizing anything.” Maybe it isn’t politicizing, but outing a private conversation is incredibly rude. Even the White House, not known for sensitivity, said “The President’s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private.” This conversation should have remained private. Rep. Frederica Wilson should have kept her mouth shut.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
The Scarlet R
Bloggingheads.tv released another chat featuring Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. With election days 35 days away, there was lots of talk about Donald and Hillary. It only took 1:44, in episode 44020, to learn what is expected. The assignment is to call DJT a racist, and lament what a terrible thing that is. This is what passes for political discourse in 2016.
At 3:28, there was an aha moment. The line was that DJT, instead of an orange haired ogre, was really just a seventh grade bully. When PG was in seventh grade, there was a mean person who gave him problems. This individual is now a facebook friend, and regularly posts memes supporting DJT. PG likes to know what the “other side” thinks. Ignoring the memes is always an option.
At 9:22, the importance of identifying racism in others is stressed. This is said to totally justify the appeal of DJT. Once you call someone a racist, you no longer have to work to understand their motives. When the scarlet R is super glued to somebody, that is all you need to know.
The Scarlet Letter is the rip roaring tale of Hester Prynne. She got caught fooling around, and had the scarlet A, for adultery, pinned to her chest. It was pinned to her chest, and she could see who did the pinning. In today’s “woke” world, the scarlet R, for racist, is super glued to the back of the terrible person. The person never knows who gave them this dreaded, irrevocable, label.
At 21:28, John tells an amusing story. He was talking to a well meaning white woman, said to be helpful in selling more books. At some point, the woman felt obligated to say that “we don’t like to talk about race.” John was too polite to laugh in her face.
The truth is, of course, that talking about race is the new national pastime. Does anyone listen? In all that talk, is anything worthwhile said? These questions are considered rude, and probably racist.
At 31:09, John said the n word. It is not known whether it ended with -er, or with -a. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
A Trillion Dollars
This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress. The full text of one section is available, and has amusing stories about Richard Nixon and Antonin Scalia. This feature is about the national debt. When BHO took office, the annual federal budget deficit was over a trillion dollars. According to this source, the annual deficit is now $439 billion. This is more than the total national debt that the late Everett Dirkson was losing sleep over in the sixties. Nonetheless, it is considerably less than the deficit when BHO took office. BHO, bless his drone firing heart, is given credit for reducing the deficit more than any POTUS in history.
… The last quote is from another POTUS who is no longer with us, Ronald Reagan. “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.” Mr. Reagan was a professional actor, and he knew the value of a good script.
This slogan is another one that Mr. Obama may find handy. It should be noted that it was a big deal when the national debt (the grand total of the deficits) went over a trillion dollars. This was during the first term of Mr. Reagan. Today, under Mr. Obama, the annual deficit is over a trillion dollars. Sooner or later, you are talking about real money.
PG suffered brain damage trying to find out more about the quote from Mr. Reagan. He went through six pages of google. There must be 25 sites which have lists of quotes from Mr. Reagan, and all of them feature this quote. None have an actual source.
What was the context? When did he first say it? One site says it was “(during the latter years of his administration)”. Another site says it was “Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989”. Maybe this is an urban legend. As Mr. Reagan said, don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Those of a certain age remember Everett Dirksen. A Republican Senator from Illinois, he was blessed with an operatic voice, and cursed with a face that could stop a clock. He is credited (or blamed) for the quote ” A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” The Dirksen Congressional Center can neither confirm nor deny if he really said that. The discussion of this reputed quote does turn up a passage, that is germane to today’s conversation.
“One time in the House of Representatives [a colleague] told me a story about a proposition that a teacher put to a boy. He said, ‘Johnny, a cat fell in a well 100 feet deep. Suppose that cat climbed up 1 foot and then fell back 2 feet. How long would it take the cat to get out of the well?’
“Johnny worked assiduously with his slate and slate pencil for quite a while, and then when the teacher came down and said, ‘How are you getting along?’ Johnny said, ‘Teacher, if you give me another slate and a couple of slate pencils, I am pretty sure that in the next 30 minutes I can land that cat in hell. If some people get any cheer out of a $328 billion debt ceiling, I do not find much to cheer about concerning it.” [Congressional Record, June 16, 1965, p. 13884].
Senator Dirksen went to the fundraising dinner in the sky September 7, 1969. Twelve years later, the Reagan revolution was getting started. Taxes were cut, and spending increased. In a couple of years, the national debt went over a trillion dollars. (The annual budget deficit is now over a trillion dollars.) For those new to the game, a trillion is a billion, multiplied by a thousand. For all the numbers above, multiply by a thousand, to get a trillion.
In 1965, Senator Dirksen was losing sleep, over raising the national debt to $328 billion. The current national debt is estimated at $16,964,687,666,420. This is 5171% of 328 billion.
In 1965, the national debt was $328 billion, and we were losing 100 men every week in Vietnam. One of the more expensive things the government does is fight wars. Currently we are officially killing people in Afghanistan, and several more countries that no one knows about (nudge wink).
On September 11, 2001, The United States was attacked. Revenge was the order of the day. There are now indications that this was one of the goals of Al Queda. The Soviet Union imploded, in large part, because of the strain of fighting a war in Afghanistan. Now, the United States is waist deep in the same big muddy. Whoever is elected in 2016 will have to deal with this matter.
Afghanistan has a gross national product of $27 billion. The Congressional Research Service estimates the cost of American operations in Afghanistan for 2011 to be $119 billion. This is over four times the gross national product of Afghanistan. Pretty soon, you are talking about real money.
Did BHO Say He Is A Liberal?
PG listened to The Allen Hunt Show on his way home from Piccadilly Sunday night. The radio talker was discussing charitable giving. It was said that WMR, who calls himself a conservative, gave X% to charity. Meanwhile, BHO calls himself a liberal, and gave Y% to charity. The question PG had was, when did BHO say, in so many words, I am a liberal? At 7:25 PM – 23 Sep 12, this tweet went out: @chamblee54 “@AllenHunt When did Barack Obama say “I am a liberal?” If there is a reply, it will be shared here. This is a repost.
One viewpoint is that conservatives enjoy labels more than liberals do. You seldom hear anyone boasting about how liberal they are, while conservatives seem to get off on selfapplying the c word. It could be that conservatives enjoy putting labels on people more than liberals.
Part of the problem is the changing definitions of the L and C words. It used to be that an activist foreign policy was considered liberal. Then conservatives discovered the fun of sending armies out to kill people. Since BHO has been the POTUS, the war in Afghanistan has been escalated. The use of futuristic drone airplanes to kill women and children in neutral countries has dramatically increased. Is this the behavior of a liberal?
One easy test is to use wikiquotes. The BHO page has 40k words. The search term is liberal. The first thing to come up is the classic routine from his 2008 campaign. “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.” Another BHO quote is “We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism..” There are three quotes from others who describe BHO as a liberal. The quote we are looking for is not there.
If you ask Mr. Google “has barack obama ever called himself a liberal”, you get 17 million results. For “I am a liberal” Barack Obama”, there are 188k results. These two first pages may, or may not, give a time and place for this alleged quote.
On September 11, 2012, the Daily Kos posted Are you more (or less) liberal than President Obama? Take the Quiz!. “This quiz was in no way intended to represent the political spectrum in America in a traditional way.” Nor does it tell us the context for this “urban legend” quote.
The rest of the first page for I am a liberal” Barack Obama is useless. It is a bunch of blog posts containing the phrase “I am a liberal”. One exception is a book review, Review: ‘I Am a Liberal’ is the Mocking Liberals Deserve.
The other search page does not show this magic unicorn of a quote. It does have some seriously weird stuff. Fact Check Project: Allegations that Barack Obama Does Not Exist. 7 Reasons Obama is NOT a Christian. Wikiality, the Truthiness Encyclopedia, gives you a choice: “THIS IS ABOUT THE REAL MOOSLIM OBAMA, FOR THE THEORETICAL OBAMA THAT SOME REPUBLICANS HAVE FOR THERE FANTASY, SEE: THIS PAGE.”
Before we leave this page, there should be a visit to Liberty Counsel – Adopt a Liberal. “Pick one or more of the liberals from the list we have posted online at http://www.LC.org, or choose your own liberal(s) to adopt. If you are led to choose one or more of the liberals we have selected for consideration, please read their brief biographical statement, including the reasons they stand in need of prayer.” One of the choices is “The unknown Liberal.” “There will likely be additional liberals the Lord may bring to mind who desperately need your prayers. Feel free to select your own unique liberal and adopt them for prayer, perhaps even nominating one or more liberals for listing on our website by emailing us at liberty@LC.org.”
The question remains, did BHO ever say “I am a liberal”? In a way, it doesn’t matter. People are going to believe whatever they want to believe. It would be fun to know the context of any such statement.
Out of a misguided sense of fairness, PG decided to investigate whether WMR ever said ” I am a conservative”. When you ask Mr. Google “did Mitt Romney”, the suggested searches are dodge the draft, outsource jobs, start staples, and really save the olympics.
You don’t have to go far to get results here. There is a story, Romney Has Conciliatory Remarks on Obama and Health Overhaul. “Reminded that he had once called himself a “severe” conservative, Mr. Romney seemed to play down that description. “I am as conservative as the Constitution,” he said.” This comment could be taken in different ways. The Constitution was a fairly liberal document for the 18th century. Maybe amendments made it conservative.
Mr. Romney’s reputed conservatism combined with Oxycontin to put Rush Limbaugh on cloud nine. “I was a severely conservative Republican governor,” Mitt Romney told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2012. Severely conservative? Conservatives snickered. “I may be a little giddy here,” Rush Limbaugh said. “I have never heard anybody say, ‘I’m severely conservative.'”Here is the source: Mitt Romney’s ‘Severe Conservatism’.
On the trip to Piccadilly, the theme of the Allen Hunt show was a sign on NYC busses. The poster was produced by Pamela Geller. The text reads “IN ANY WAR BETWEEN THE CIVILIZED MAN AND THE SAVAGE SUPPORT THE CIVILIZED MAN SUPPORT ISRAEL DEFEAT JIHAD PAID FOR BY THE AMERICAN FREEDOM DEFENSE INITIATIVE ATLASSHRUGS.COM SIOAONLINE.COM JIHADWATCH.COM.”
Two of the web addresses on the sign are not valid. Spell check suggestions for the websites: ATLASSHRUGS/ GLASSHOUSES, SIOAONLINE/ NONLINEAR, JIHADWATCH/ BIRDWATCHER.
Mr. Hunt said the sign was accurate. He consulted a dictionary, and said that any definition of savage fits Muslims. Mr. Hunt said he did not approve of the sign, and would tell his audience why after a commercial break. By this time, PG was in the serving line at Piccadilly. Chicken tenders taste better than the opinions of a radio whiner.
During the invasion of Gaza, Israel killed children using depleted uranium shells. During an incident with a Turkish ship, Israel shot an American citizen four times at point blank range. On the West Bank, Israel bulldozes homes to build illegal settlements. Maybe Israel is the savage.
Greeted As Liberators Part Two
Paul Wolfowitz has been a government player for years. After finishing his education, he got a job in the Nixon Administration, and worked with Ford and Reagan. He became a star under GHWB and GWB. Mr. Wolfowitz never served in the military.
Under George W. Bush, Mr. Wolfowitz was Deputy Secretary of Defense. After 911, he became a forceful advocate of War in Iraq. He is regarded by some as the “Architect of the War in Iraq”.
On February 27, 2003, Mr. Wolfowitz testified before congress. “There has been a good deal of comment—some of it quite outlandish—about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take … to secure the surrender of Saddam’s security forces and his army…”
The conquest was the easy part. The occupation, the act of putting humpty dumpty back together, has been the tough part. More than a few people saw this in 2003.
Mr. Wolfowitz gave an interview to Vanity Fair magazine May 9, 2009. The interview had a quote about WMD. “The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason.” The possession of WMD by “next Hitler” Saddam Hussein was one of the leading reasons for the invasion. Iraq was known to have used poison gas against the Kurds (while he was an ally of the United States). The warehouses of WMD have never been found.
In 1941, The United States was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor. A declaration of war was issued within a week. There was no settling on an issue for bureaucratic reasons.
PG found a transcript of the complete interview. The link no longer works. HT to Tom Dispatch. Apparently, Mr. Wolfowitz likes to talk. The part that interested PG concerns the Cruise missile, and other “smart” weapons. It seems as though the research on these weapons was almost suspended. The United States was negotiating arms control with The Soviet Union. The Cruise missile was almost abandoned as a concession to the Soviets. The Navy supported this, as they felt that the torpedoes on submarines were taking up too much room already.
This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress. The pictures were taken in Omaha NE, in November 1938. The photographer was John Vachon, working for the Farm Security Administrative.
Trump Is Racist Meme
There was a comment thread on facebook. Here is the comment that started it. “I have a Facebook friend, who is a black Trump supporter, who says he doesn’t care “if he’s racist or not.” I don’t know what to think about that. Maybe there are a few of my black friends who can help me with that?” There were a lot of comments, which is not surprising. Race, and not liking Donald Trump, are two popular topics of conversation.
The conversation started with a link to When Someone Says They Still Support Trump, I Instantly Know 6 Things About Them. The six items, with a parenthetical summary, are: 1. You want to be ruled, not governed (authoritarianism,) 2. You are not someone I would trust to do business with (business ethics,) 3. You’re either a racist or an enabler of racists (racism,) 4. You have issues with women (misogyny,) 5. You aren’t quite as “Christian” as you claim to be (religious exploitation,) 6. You are anti-constitution (respect for rule of law,)
While those six items are more or less true about Mr. Trump, it is a stretch to say they apply to anyone who supports the man. (Many of these character traits are present in people who don’t like Mr. Trump, especially authoritarianism.) What is disturbing to PG is the way that racial attitudes dominates the conversation. This is a problem in a lot of ways. The obsession with screaming racist helped Mr. Trump get elected. Insulting potential voters is not a good campaign strategy.
There seems to be a national verdict that Donald J. Trump is a racist. A non compliant racial attitude is worse than authoritarianism, crookedness, and mental instability. If you are white, and you question this orthodoxy, then you are a racist. If you are black, and don’t believe without question, then you are asking to be insulted.
The Trump-is-racist meme follows a cynical decision to make Mr. Trump’s racial attitudes a campaign issue. The best evidence cited is a 1973 complaint, involving discrimination in renting apartments. Other evidence… attacks on nationalities, attacks on religious groups, support of unseemly white people … utilize an elastic definition of racism. Others disagree.
There was a comment: Martin C Ezeonu “Lol… I don’t like Trump cuz he is an asshole. On the other hand we know exactly where there country stands now because of him. This country is still racist as hell. these past years nobody addressed is just politicians smartly covering it up. But now to move forward something has to give. And I like that. Let people stop being deceived. Don’t care if he is racist or not I like the fact that he is not a politician and couldn’t play the game. That’s why both parties want him out.”
Mr. Ezeonu is from Nigeria. He might have little in common with most African Americans, other that his skin tone. That is all many people see. People fail to appreciate the amazing diversity in today’s African America. In the comments, Mr. Exeonu was called an idiot, mentally ill, and many other things. Not agreeing with a national consensus is dangerous.
Mr. Trump has numerous problems. In the list of six things, we see authoritarian tendencies, and ethical shortcomings. Many feel the Democrats made a mistake by screaming racist, instead of focusing on his shady business practices. Many white people were alienated by this campaign tactic. After the Trump victory, many black people feel alienated by his election. The race situation gets worse and worse. Saying that Donald Trump is a racist does not help.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Tiki Torch
There was a wild weekend in Charlottesville VA. You probably heard about it. The media… corporate, social, anti social … is not known for restraint. The click bait happy datamongers go crazy when a racial conflict emerges. Social media swarms with virtue signalling, as the insecure/insincere masses leap at the opportunity to be seen “on the right side of history.”
The tiki torch boys enjoy bad press, and see it as as proof that they are cool. People see negative reaction as an affirmation of their virtue. One example is this purple prose headline: Procter & Gamble Release an Ad About ‘the Talk,’ and White People Respond With the Wettest, Saltiest, Stupidest White Tears Ever. A soap company decides that the hardships faced by black people are a good marketing gimmick. It is assumed that some white people will not like it, and will make stupid comments on facebook. It is all part of the game.
The white people parade friday night was breathlessly reported. The alt-right children were routinely labelled nazis. The original nazis almost conquered Europe, killed twenty million Soviets, and were one of the fiercest war machines ever created. The star performer saturday flunked out of the US Army because he could not meet their standards. Why do people routinely label these obnoxious children nazis? The Germans had standards.
Let’s do a bit of speculation. What if the tiki torch parade had been ignored? Let the idiots have their parade. Surround them with law enforcement, and keep antifa away. Repeat this on Saturday. Keep the alt right far away from antifa. Have a media blackout… don’t give these clowns, both alt right and antifa, the attention that they crave. Let the counter protesters have their sign waving party. When the rally is over, James Fields will get in his Dodge Challenger and drive back to Ohio. Everyone can go back home, eat hamburgers, and be happy. White idiots will get less attention.
Which brings us to Donald Trump. The democrats made racism a campaign issue. The slimy crookedness of DJT was ignored, and replaced by screaming racist, racist. When he won, anything perceived as racist is suddenly his fault. The black people feel more alienated than before. The lingering liberals blame anything they don’t like on the bottle blonde butthead. People are blaming the tiki torch antics, of the slobbering mob, on Donald Trump. Critical thinking is called for.
America loves to talk about police brutality. The police had a slow day Saturday. Deputies shoot, kill man who lunged at them with knife, official says. A non African American, Hispanic, man, Eduardo Navarrete, was beamed out on meth. He lunged at police with a knife, with fatal results. This was the only officer involved shooting reported on Saturday.
The role played by antifa, or anti fascism, is uncertain. Apparently, they wanted to give the alt right a fight. Since this makes the alt right seem virtuous, the offer the fight was accepted. When you wrestle with a pig, you get dirty, and the hog has a good time. The alt right is taking the blame for this mess, along with DJT, the police, and, of course, racism. Antifa is getting a free ride. If antifa had not been there on saturday, the alt right would have had to fight with themselves. Maybe antifa, whoever they are, and whoever is funding them, needs to be held accountable.
This too shall pass away. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.” The spell check suggestion for antifa is Tiffany.
Dump
You have probably heard Donald Trump quoted as saying the White House is a dump. The quote was in a Sports Illustrated article, First Golfer: Donald Trump’s relationship with golf has never been more complicated. This comment is one of many unflattering comments about DJT in the article. Once the dump comment got publicity, it was *officially* denied. @realDonaldTrump I love the White House, one of the most beautiful buildings (homes) I have ever seen. But Fake News said I called it a dump – TOTALLY UNTRUE
Facebook jumped into the matter with a tasteful meme. The top part is the TrumpDump comment. The bottom part is a picture of BHO, with a quote: “In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg Address, written in Lincoln’s own hand. …”
Most BHO quotes are legitimate. He is still a celebrity, and a record of his every word exists. It is not like historic quote magnets like Marilyn Monroe and Mark Twain. When you see a beautifully illustrated quote, with a famous dead person at the bottom, the odds are very good that the famous dead person did not say it.
This does not stop a skeptic like PG. Once you get started investigating, there is no telling what you are going to find. The BHO quote is documented by Huffington Post, Obama Pens Letter Commemorating Gettysburg Address On 150th Anniversary Of Remarks. The Lincoln bedroom at the White House does have one of the Copies of the Gettysburg Address.
The comments by BHO were originally posted at WhiteHouse.gov. When you follow the HuffPo link, you see this: “Thank you for your interest in this subject. Stay tuned as we continue to update whitehouse.gov.” The letter from BHO is no longer on WhiteHouse.gov. A cached copy is available.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The Biggest Shill in Georgia Part Two
This is an update to a chamblee54 feature, The Biggest Shill In Georgia. It is about politcal website inside baseball. Or maybe it is republican on republican snowflake abuse. If you don’t want to bother with the text, you can always skip ahead to the pictures. The pictures, from The Library of Congress. , are usually more entertaining than the text. Russell Lee took the pictures in October, 1938. “Crowd, listening to the Cajun band at National Rice Festival, Crowley, Louisiana.”
After the chamblee54 feature hit the innertubes, a comment/link/self promotion device was posted at the seminal post, The Biggest Shill in Georgia. Here are the comments that followed: ScottNAtlanta If it isnt Sen David Perdue…I’m not sure who is, but then again…he is in DC TheDeepDark Anyone want to explain this to our friend Chamblee54? Ellynn Not really. It took me under 2 mins. reading through facebook comments to figure it out. If i can do it… any one can.
Facebook can be frustrating to bloggers. You would prefer to have comments go to your blog. However, facebook is more convenient to some people. Unfortunately, if you are trying to follow the action, and look at the blog comments only, you might miss out on some of the buzz.
GeorgiaPol had a facebook comment thread about the post that started it all, Williams: “Casey Cagle Likes Nickelback!” Someone made a multi-paragraph comment. The commenter appears to be a supporter of Michael Williams, and criticized the GeorgiaPol coverage.
Chamblee54 agrees with GeorgiaPol on this. Michael Williams made a fool of himself. It is tough to take sides in this one. Casey Cagle is a career Gold Domer, who has trouble keeping his shoes tied. Michael Williams brags about being “the first Georgia elected official to endorse Donald Trump for President.” In a perfect world they would both lose. Given the republican bullpen, those two might be the best we have to choose from. It is not like the Democrats are going to help.
The commenter finished his message with a flourish. “In the meantime, I advise the owners of this website to consider changing its name to Georgiashill.com. Doing so would offer the public much more substance as to its real purposes.” Thirteen minutes later, there was a reply: GeorgiaPol.com “That was a great suggestion about the website… so we bought it… We think you might like it.”
This was amusing, but did not quite explain everything. It seems there was more than one facebook thread. The post was shared, on facebook and twitter, by @MikeHassinger “Who’s the biggest shill in Georgia? Find out with just one click.” Scott Jackson Redirects me to Mike Hassinger’s page, that isn’t very nice of GeorgiaPol I think. Thomas Wheatley It redirected me to my own page!
GeorgiaPol was just playing a little joke on the people who drop in. Compared to the way RedState deals with inconvenient comments, being directed to your facebook page by georgiashill.com is pretty mild. As for inside baseball, it is almost time for football.
The Biggest Shill in Georgia
Georgia is electing a new Governor next year. These no-incumbent elections can get weird. There is usually an “its my turn” journeyman, a couple of ambitious performers, and the nut jobs. Yesterday, a man named Michael Williams held a meeting in front of a staircase at the state capitol. This event was slammed by a political website, GeorgiaPol
PG observed these events, and chuckled. He went to the Michael Williams website, and found a hilarious paragraph in the bio. “His first experience with his own business was selling candy on the school bus. Unfortunately, this was also his first experience with over-reaching government regulations. The school shut down his school bus candy sales. Michael was devastated but learned a lesson about government control that he would never forget.” This is like the punchline, to the joke about the *free market* pervert… “Hey kid, you want to buy some candy?”
GeorgiaPol has a regular post, Morning Reads. It is usually a collection of links, and news tidbits. PG wanted to share the Williams timeline feature somewhere, and posted it in the Morning Reads comments. He thought one, or two, people might enjoy it.
The Biggest Shill in Georgia turned up at July 14, 2017 9:58 AM. By TheDeepDark “noun 1. an accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others. verb 1. act or work as a shill. Since we see this word used a lot in comments, on Facebook, and just about everywhere we thought it would be a good idea to internally vote and come up with the one person that we believe embodies this word the best… we present you with http://www.georgiashill.com Enjoy your day.”
When you click on http://www.georgiashill.com , you go the the facebook page of Luther Mckinnon. As some of you know, Luther Mckinnon is the owner of chamblee54, and the man behind PG. This has never been a secret. Chamblee54 is a psuedonym. If you look in the “About Me” page, you will see pictures, and a few biographical clues. All posts on chamblee54 are advertised on facebook and twitter, on accounts using the Luther Mckinnon identity.
If you click on the gravatar for “TheDeepDark,” you see this: TheDeepDark We’re sorry, that profile has been deleted. Perhaps you’d like to log in or sign up for an account? Perhaps the five comments will provide a clue. John Pezold Got me. Is this 2017’s version of Rick Rolling? Lawton Sack GeorgiaPolling chamblee54 I resemble that remark Ellynn I don’t even comment on the Facebook page… What did I miss? blakeage80 Nice. Only TheDeepDark could pull that off.
It is tough what to make of this. Did TDD think chamblee54 was working for Michael Williams? Was this an inside joke for GeorgiaPol? Nobody said anything on facebook, so maybe it didn’t really happen. Pictures for your friday afternoon entertainment are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. UPDATE: Here is Part Two.
With All Due Respect
At the 44 minute mark of a recent debate, Karen Handel (KCH) and Jon Ossoff (TJO) were having a bit of a skirmish. The question (41:34) had been put to TJO: How can you be independent in Congress, when you will need Democratic Party help in a re-election. TJO rambled a bit, and did not answer the question. Instead, he attacked KCH. The attack centered around the PR disaster at the Susan B. Komen foundation, which KCH played at central role in.
The two sparred for a few minutes. PR expected someone to call the other a poopyhead, which they would reply to by saying you have cooties. KCH said something, and TJO interrupted. “It’s a simple question, with all due respect” “With all due respect, do not interrupt me”
This may be the one moment of this nightmare election that captures two personalities. KCH is not above interrupting, and using shady argument tricks. It was her moment to take control of the situation. Most politicians are hypocrites.
PG got a screen shot, which is posted above. Look at the eyes. KCH is mean. She is tired of this silly little boy. TJO is looking at his shoes. The embarrassment about being out badded by his opponent is evident. KCH won the momentary power game. She easily *handled* TJO.
Maybe people will quit saying “with all due respect.” WADR is the new “bless your heart.” On election day, KCH won , with, or without, due respect. It is not known what the turning point was, or if TJO ever had a serious chance. Most 6th district voters are happy to see a noisy campaign end. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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